New Report Confirms Police Account Of Man's Suicide

NEWPORT NEWS — Police officers said they were shocked last fall when a man they were chasing after an attempted traffic stop, placed a handgun under his chin and fired.

Victor Carter, 23, was pronounced dead at a local hospital, police said.

Many who gathered at the shooting scene that Nov. 14 afternoon in the Orcutt Homes housing complex believed Carter had been shot by a police officer. Word spread through the crowd -- some said police were trying to cover up the truth.

Following the shooting, activists organized a vigil and rallies. They demanded that city officials and that the commonwealth's attorney launch an investigation. The City Council asked for a report.

The findings of an investigation by the Commonwealth's Attorney's office and the police department were released this week, confirming initial reports that Carter shot himself.

"There was no credible evidence" that anybody other than Carter fired his gun that afternoon, said Commonwealth's Attorney Howard Gwynn.

When officers tried to stop Carter in his car near Orcutt Avenue and 35th Street, he jumped from the moving vehicle and ran. Officers chased Carter between a row of apartment buildings.

Officers said they saw Carter with a handgun when they were about five or six feet away and demanded that he drop it. It was then, according to a police report, that Carter put the gun to his head.

The findings this week included the results of an autopsy report, Gwynn's conclusions and those of a private investigator hired by the family.

Police found:

* Forensic analysis of a shell casing found next to Carter's body showed that it was fired from his 9 mm handgun.

* Carter's DNA was found on the trigger, the grip area and on the barrel.

* Both officers' .45 caliber guns, which were seized at the scene, were fully loaded.

* The state medical examiner determined -- citing the trajectory of the round and presence of burned gunpowder inside the gunshot wound -- that the wound was consistent with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Gwynn said he met with the family and Ned Massey -- a private investigator hired by the family -- and that Massey didn't find any believable witnesses.

Massey said he talked to between 20 and 25 people at Orcutt Homes and found two males and a female who said they saw an officer shoot Carter.

But Massey said their accounts that officers were several feet away from Carter when one of the officers fired weren't consistent with the physical evidence. Massey said evidence showed an imprint of the handgun barrel under Carter's chin, which had to have happened when the gun was pressed against his skin.

Massey said the witnesses also told him they were standing behind the officers when the shooting happened. They could not have seen the action from that position.

However, an activist, Roy L. Perry-Bey, said he spoke to two witnesses who said they saw an officer shoot Carter while standing over him.

"They saw a weapon in the officer's hands and saw fire leave his barrel," Perry-Bey said.

But Carter's stepfather, Jay Johnson, said the family has to accept the findings.

"We had it analyzed by someone who was capable of doing it," said Johnson. "We had to make certain that nothing untoward was done to him."

Johnson said he doesn't think the people who claimed to see an officer shoot Carter were being malicious, but that they may believe what they told him.

He said it would've helped him and his wife if a high-ranking police administrator talked with the family to assure them a full investigation was being done when they were initially hearing the allegations. He said the accusations delayed their ability to mourn.

"We weren't able to move into the grieving process immediately because we didn't know what happened," he said. "We got stuck."

Keith Rushing can be reached at 247-7870 or by e-mail at krushing@dailypress.com